ALL OF US STRANGERS. (DVD Artwork). ©Searchlight Pictures.
Movies
All of Us Strangers (Drama, Fantasy, Romance)
A compelling exploration of love, family and grief, Searchlight Pictures’ “All of Us Strangers” is now available to own on Digital.
One night in his near-empty tower block in contemporary London, Adam (Andrew Scott, “Spectre”) has a chance encounter with a mysterious neighbor, Harry (Paul Mescal, “Aftersun”), which punctures the rhythm of his everyday life. As a relationship develops between them, Adam is preoccupied with memories of the past and finds himself drawn back to the suburban town where he grew up, and the childhood home where his parents (Claire Foy, “Women Talking,” and Jamie Bell, “Billy Elliot”), appear to be living, just as they were on the day they died, 30 years before.
The Digital release of “All of Us Strangers” allows audiences to delve deeper into the film with two exclusive behind-the-scenes featurettes. Viewers can uncover how director Andrew Haigh (“45 Years”) blended his own personal story into the making of the film and learn how the filmmakers approached recreating the look and feel of the 1980s in “Roots of the Story,” and visit the locations of exterior shots and learn about Haigh’s choice to have Adam’s world feel real, and yet not quite real, in “Building Adam’s World.”
Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 4 (Comedy, Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi)
Six beloved films from Columbia Pictures make their 4K Ultra HD debut with the “Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 4,” now available for purchase from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
The star-studded films in the collection — “His Girl Friday” starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell; “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” starring Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn; “Kramer vs. Kramer” starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep; “Starman” starring Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen; “Sleepless in Seattle” starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan; and “Punch-Drunk Love” starring Adam Sandler, Emily Watson and Philip Seymour Hoffman — are only available on 4K Ultra HD disc within the special limited edition collector’s set, although each film is also available for purchase at Digital retailers in 4K with HDR. Included with the collector’s set is a gorgeous hardbound 80-page book, featuring in-depth sections about the making of each film within the set via six all-new incisive essays from renowned writers and journalists, plus rare photos from deep within the Columbia Pictures archives. The set also includes more than 30 hours of special features across the films, including both newly created behind-the-scenes featurettes and commentaries and never-before-seen archival materials, plus the entirety of the 1986-1987 “Starman” TV series, exclusively debuting in high definition.
Each film is presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range, and five of the films (“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Starman,” “Sleepless in Seattle” and “Punch-Drunk Love”) have all-new Dolby Atmos mixes. Other new features include two featurettes for “His Girl Friday” (“Screwball Style: The Iconic Costumes of Robert Kalloch” and “Breaking the Speed Barrier: The Dialogue of ‘His Girl Friday’”); five never-before-seen deleted scenes for “Kramer vs. Kramer” as well as an audio commentary with film professor Jennine Lanouette; a 30th anniversary critic commentary with Karen Han and David Sims for “Sleepless in Seattle” as well as a conversation on the film with producer Gary Foster and star Meg Ryan; and never-before-seen deleted scenes for “Starman.”
Contagion (Drama, Thriller)
Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 medical thriller about a global epidemic and the people determined to keep it at bay, “Contagion” debuts for the first time on Ultra HD Blu-ray Tuesday, Feb. 27, from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment. The film will also be available for purchase on Digital.
An international traveler reaches into the snack bowl at an airport bar before passing her credit card to a waiter. A business meeting begins with a round of handshakes. A man coughs on a crowded bus. One contact. One instant. And a lethal virus is transmitted.
When Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow, “Shakespeare in Love”) returns to Minneapolis from business in Hong Kong, what she thought was jet lag takes a virulent turn. Two days later, she’s dead in the ER and the doctors tell her shocked and grieving husband (Matt Damon, “Good Will Hunting”) they have no idea why. Soon, others exhibit the same mysterious symptoms: hacking coughs and fever, followed by seizure, brain hemorrhage and ultimately, death. The numbers quickly multiply as the contagion sweeps across all borders, fueled by the countless human interactions that make up the course of an average day. A global pandemic explodes.
As the death toll escalates and people struggle to protect themselves and their loved ones in a society breaking down, one activist blogger (Jude Law, “Cold Mountain”) claims the public isn’t getting the truth about what’s really going on and sets off an epidemic of paranoia and fear as infectious as the virus itself.
Directed by Soderbergh (“Traffic”), “Contagion” features an all-star ensemble cast including Marion Cottilard (“The Dark Knight Rises”), Laurence Fishburne (“What’s Love Got to Do with It”), Kate Winslet (“Titanic”), Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”), Jennifer Ehle (Broadway’s “The Real Thing”) and Sanaa Lathan (“A Raisin in the Sun”). The 4K restoration was completed at Warner Bros. Discovery’s Motion Picture Imaging (MPI) and was sourced from the original camera negative. The remastering process was overseen by Soderbergh. Bonus features on the release include three previously released featurettes: “The Reality of ‘Contagion,’” “The ‘Contagion’ Detectives” and “‘Contagion’: How a Virus Changes the World.”
Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman (Crime, Fantasy, Horror)
The supernatural fantasy-thriller “Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman” debuts on Digital, Blu-ray and DVD Tuesday, Feb. 27, from Well Go USA Entertainment.
Despite being the grandson of a famed village shaman, Dr. Cheon doesn’t actually believe in ghosts, yet makes a living performing fake exorcisms on camera. But when a mysterious client arrives at his door, Dr. Cheon is drawn into a series of strange and unexplainable events that will challenge everything he has ever believed — and resurface childhood horrors he’s tried to forget.
The first feature film by director Kim Seong-sik (an AD on “Parasite”), “Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman” stars Gang Dong-won (“Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula”), Huh Joon-ho (“Escape from Mogadishu”), Esom (“Kill Boksoon”), Lee Dong-hwi (“The Call”), Kim Jong-soo (“Ransomed”), Park So-yi (“Deliver Us from Evil”) and, making her feature film debut, pop star Jisoo from the group Blackpink. The film is presented in Korean with optional English subtitles. Bonus features include character bios and the movie’s trailer.
The Moon (Action, Adventure, Drama)
From Kim Yong Hwa — the director of the “Along with the Gods” franchise — comes the acclaimed sci-fi thriller “The Moon,” debuting on Digital, Blu-ray and DVD Tuesday, Feb. 27, from Well Go USA Entertainment.
Seven years after Korea’s first fully manned mission to the moon ends in disaster, a second human spaceflight is launched successfully — until a strong solar wind causes the spacecraft to malfunction. With an astronaut left stranded in space and quickly running out of oxygen, the Naro Space Center turns to its former managing director to avert yet another fatal catastrophe.
Starring Sul Kyung Gu (“Public Enemy”), Doh Kyung Soo (“Along with the Gods” franchise) and Kim Hee Ae (“Herstory”), “The Moon” is presented in Korean with optional English subtitles. Bonus materials on the release include behind-the-scenes content, character bios and the film’s trailer.
Paprika (Animation, Drama, Fantasy)
Enter the realm of fantasy and imagination — where reality and dreams collide in a kaleidoscopic mindscape of sheer visual genius — with acclaimed director Satoshi Kon’s anime masterpiece “Paprika,” now available as a limited edition 4K Ultra HD SteelBook from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
The magical tale centers on a revolutionary machine that allows scientists to enter and record a subject’s dream. After being stolen, a fearless detective and brilliant therapist join forces to recover the device — before it falls into the hands of a “dream terrorist.”
In addition to the all-new featurette, “Restoring ‘Paprika,’” the “Paprika” 4K Ultra HD disc includes the feature film presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision and Japanese Dolby Atmos + Japanese and English DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio options. The Blu-ray disc included with the two-disc SteelBook release includes the movie presented in high definition, sourced from the 4K master, plus 5.1 Japanese and English Dolby TrueHD audio. Several special features are also included on the Blu-ray disc, including a filmmaker commentary, theatrical trailers, the making-of documentary “Tsutsui and Kon’s ‘Paprika,’” Storyboards and Original Drawings and the featurettes “A Conversation About the ‘Dream,’” “The Dream CG World” and “The Art of Fantasy.”
Wonka (Adventure, Comedy, Family)
Experience the magical origin of the world’s most famous chocolatier when “Wonka” debuts on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD Tuesday, Feb. 27, from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment. The film is also now available to own on Digital.
Based on the extraordinary, iconic character at the center of Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” — one of the best-selling children’s books of all time — “Wonka” tells the wondrous story of how a young chocolate-maker, armed with nothing but a hatful of dreams, manages to change the world, one delectable bite at a time. Starring Timothée Chalamet (“Call Me by Your Name”) in the title role, this irresistibly vivid and inventive film introduces audiences to a young Willy Wonka, as he becomes the world’s greatest inventor, magician and chocolate-maker.
Bonus features on the release include five featurettes (“Unwrapping ‘Wonka’: Paul King’s Vision,” “The Whimsical Music of ‘Wonka,’” “Welcome to Wonka Land,” “Hats Off to ‘Wonka’” and “‘Wonka’’s Chocolatier”) that take viewers behind the scenes, detailing everything from adapting the beloved story of Wonka to the film’s wondrous songs, magical sets, wonderful costumes and even its beautiful chocolates.
Calling all fans of South Korean cinema! Front Row Features is not only giving away a copy of “Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman” on Blu-ray to three lucky readers, but also a copy of “The Moon” on Blu-ray to three additional readers. To enter the contests, simply email socalmovieeditor@aol.com by March 4 with the title of which movie you want to win in the subject line. Only one entry per title, please. Good luck!
